Trio of Daily Calisthenics

[BeboppinFool]

Thanks to Dave "Airdyn" for posting this elsewhere . . . it definitely warrants its own topic, so I'm copying directly below what Dave posted this morning. Thanks!!!

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...Doc says: "All too many students take "THE TRIO OF DAILY PLAYING CALISTHENICS" which consists of "The Buzzing Routine" (to reduce embouchure flabbiness and increase vibrating fluency) - "The Jaw Retention Drill" (to strengthen the jaw muscles) - and "The Pencil Trick Routine" (to increase over-all embouchure compression) - all too lightly.

Four minutes must be spent on each of the three drills, with plenty of rest between them. These drills should be a daily occurrence for your entire playing life and this is stated without exaggeration.

...To make the embouchure too firm, rather than too loose, a split-second before actual mouthpiece rim contact against the embouchure is a must as far as being on the safe side is concerned."

"[DAILY DRILL #FOUR] (along with the trio of daily playing calisthenics) : FIRM THE MOUTH CORNERS IN AND AGAINST YOUR TEETH (positively not backward or forward), THIS FIRMS YOUR ENTIRE EMBOUCHURE FORMATION AS IT MUST BE BEFORE ACTUAL MOUTHPIECE PLACEMENT. IN SHORT, IT IS THE BUZZING FORMATION WITH THE LOWER JAW IN ITS EXACT PLAYING POSITION.

...Sustain this firmed mouth corner in and against the teeth formation, with the lower lip in buzzing position (slightly inward and over the lower lip) for a few seconds at a time at first, then strive to build up the number of seconds without fatigue. After a few days of this, place your mouthpiece on this saturated, firm embouchure, inhale through the nose, and play. If it feels different than usual, then you can see just how far your placement mannerism has taken you "off base" - so to speak.

Trust this helps ALL players. I know it will.

Pay special attention to the 4th drill's words "The Buzzing FORMATION with the lower jaw in its exact playing position"! So here we know not to Buzz and expect our (lower)jaw to be in the playing position.

Thanks, Dave S.

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Thanks again, Dave!

Rich
_________________
Puttin’ On The Ritz

[scream]

I do these drills EVERYDAY. I've spoken about these drills somewhere else on this forum. It made so much difference in my playing at the outset. What we do as brass players is an athletic activity, if you will. Strength and coordination of muscles is important in what we do. Athletes do excercises to strengthen their muscles so they can perform more effortlessly and efficiently. These drills will do the same for you....

I thought I would add that I've never gotten the drills to 4 minutes in one sitting. I agree that that's torture for me too.....I'll do the drills (except the pencil trick which I've replaced by pushing my bottom lip with my chin muscles against my top lip) for 30 seconds to a minute 2 or 3 times a day away from any playing I'm doing.
_________________
Paul Garrett
Lawrenceville, GA


"Wherever you go....there you are."
Buckaroo Bonzai

[ This Message was edited by: scream on 2003-04-25 09:42 ]

[bgibson]

Four minutes doing the "Pencil Trick"??????????????????????????????????
Are you serious??????????????????
Anyone tried those metal weights manufactured by Chop-Sticks?
WEG

[Mr.Hollywood]

I'm with you on that one Bill!!!!

If I do the pencil trick for four minutes not only does it destroy me for the rest of the day, but the following day too.

I remember when Doc gave that to me. He said put the pencil between your lips, and count one, two, three. THATS ALL !

Did he ever tell any of you guys about the fellow who tried to use a drumstick instead of a pencil ! He claimed that it gave the guy hemorrhoids..........I'm not touching that one !!!!!!!


Chris

[DSR]

Since we're on the topic of the pencil trick, I thought I'd ask why Doc told you (us) to saturate your embouchure before putting the pencil in between your lips? (I read this off of the Daily Trio of Cal. hand-out) Is this to get in the habit of always playing wet? Another thing that crossed my mind was that maybe he said to saturate the embouchure to make it more difficult to hold the pencil up...? For me, at least, it's harder to hold the pencil in saturated lips than dry. Anyone know?

The drumstick story is funny. I've seen guys at school trying to hold their mouthpiece throat in their lips...but a drumstick?! haha.

[ This Message was edited by: DSR on 2003-04-24 23:57 ]

[Mr.Hollywood]

I think he said to do it wet because if you do it dry the "Friction Grab" of the dry lips on the pencil would make it too easy.

I believe that you get much more musular benefit from it if you do it wet.

Chris

[bgibson]

RW;
We are waiting to hear from you.
Four minutes doing the "pencil trick"??????????????????????????????????
WEG

[BeboppinFool]

I think Dave posted that stuff specifically for me!

I don't play much lead, and I'm playing lead tomorrow, and every day since Dave posted the Trio I've been doing all of those calisthenics. Usually when I drive I remember to do the pencil trick, and usually every day I do some buzzing. But I'm not always diligent about doing the whole set of drills daily.

So, what happens? I get really strong and then forget how it happened so suddenly . . . but I know that these three (or four) things help me more than I realize.

I can do the pencil trick for quite a long time . . . but I usually do it several times a day. I don't think I can hold it for a full four minutes in one shot, but in a given day (especially when I spend a lot of time behind the wheel) I'll spend more than four minutes.

But, there are days when I forget altogether, and my chops notice that.

Gotta go . . . I'm teaching a class (hahaha).

Rich
_________________
Puttin’ On The Ritz

[Mr.Hollywood]

Something just hit me !

I remember Doc telling me that Biviano could hold the pencil while driving all the way from NY to Philly.

Then again, Doc did tend to exaggerate sometimes.....


Chris

[BeboppinFool]

That's funny, Chris, I remember Doc telling me that Dave Sheetz could hold the pencil up for the entire trip from Absecon to Philadelphia.

Anybody have that on a lesson tape?



Rich
_________________
Puttin’ On The Ritz

[Wilktone]

[bgibson]

RW;
You forgetting to do a Doc drill?????????????
Try to do the buzzing and the jaw retention drills in the shower when you have the conditioner in your hair.
(that is, if you wash your hair.)
That is a good way to remember.

Now, everyone confess:
How many of us are following Doc's advice about keeping the inside of the instrument moist?
"BEFORE YOU COMMENCE YOUR DAILY BLOWING CHORES!"
Am I the only one still doing this? Rich, feel free to edit and make this a seperate post if you wish.
WEG

[walter]

You folks are much more acquainted with Docs stuff than I am, and you remember his advice much better too. Not only has it been about 30 years since I was in his presence, but I also lost all of my material (lessons, books ... everything!) after I gave it to a friend to hold for me when I was moving about 20 years ago.

What I'm about to write is in no way intended to alter anything that Doc ever said or wrote. Time and again I've found myself in awe (not so much shock) of what Doc knew about brass playing physiology. Academic knowledge often takes a back seat to real world practice, and what I have to say here is simply my humble offering of what I know about exercise physiology.

My background, for those unfamiliar with some of my past writings in the Forum, includes several years of study with Doc in the mid- thru late 60s (perhaps a little in the early 70s, though my lessons became much less frequent with the passing of time). I also studied with Seymour Rosenfeld of the Philadelphia Orchestra. I studied with both of them simultaneously for a brief time, and each often had nice things to say about the other's skills as a teacher and musician. Although both men encouraged me to pursue my ambition to become an orchestral trumpeter, aspects of my personal life lead me far away from that goal.

By the late 70s, I found myself in Palmer College of Chiropractic, studying anatomy, physiology, etc for hours and hours. The courses I studied for 4 academic years were virtually the same as in any US medical school, and in fact, we not only used exactly the same books, but several of our teachers were recruited from med schools. The education was excellent. Coincidentally, one of my best friends at school (Jim Dolan, who now practices in the Boston area) was an excellent jazz trumpeter. We spent many hours working thru Mel Broiles duets and drinking beer ... about an equal amount of time at both activities.

The point of this post is to talk about strength training. As has been pointed out in this thread, brass playing has lots in common with athletic training. In my mind, one of the foremost authorities on strength training is Fred Hattfield: a PhD in exercise physiology and a world-class champion weight lifter. What Reinhardt is to brass players, Hattfield is to many athletes. Hattfield incorporates things that Western exercise physiologists learned during the breakdown of the Iron Curtain, during which time we Americans learned about some of the research that made so many Communist Bloc athletes so good.

Strength training can be understood on the level of what's happening within skeletal muscle cells during training. The basics are these:

• Muscles derive the energy for contraction from various chemical processes / pathways.
  
• The 2 major distinctions between these chemical pathways are aerobic (meaning using oxygen) and anaerobic (meaning not using oxygen.
  
• Anaerobic pathways produce vast amounts of energy which results in sudden, rapid, short-term, intense contraction. These pathways quickly use up stored and rapidly produced chemicals needed for ongoing muscle contraction. There are several distinct stages to anaerobic activity, with the most intense during the first few seconds. By 90 seconds or so, the muscles must start depending on aerobic energy production.
  
• Aerobic pathways don't start coming into play in a major way until anaerobic pathways become self-limiting; then, aerobic pathways are able to produce energy for long periods of time. Like the Energizer Bunny, they keep going and going ... but at a reduced level of intensity compared to anaerobic contraction.

There are actually several types of skeletal muscle fiber: anaerobic (white, fast-twitch) fibers, aerobic (red, slow-twitch), and other types of fibers that are not defined in such a polar way. Some areas of the body have a larger percentage of specific fibers, and some people are genetically endowed with a greater percentage of specific fibers. This is why some people are better sprinters (the anaerobic, fast-twitch folk) and some are better marathon runners (the aerobic, slow-twitch folk).

The interesting thing is that, although some people are "naturals" at one pole or another, the way we train (for intensity versus endurance) can help us to favor one pole or the other. Unfortunately, developing one tends to preclude the full development of the other. There is some carry-over, and finely-tuned training, done over many years, may seem to result in the best of all possible worlds.

If your DNA favors your goals, if you have a good teacher (like Doc), if you practice wisely, and if you avoid the sprains & strains that are a normal part of learning a physically demanding activity, then you may advance quickly.

I noticed that many of the posts on this thread mentioned just how long 4 minutes of activity can be. The word "impossible" was used, and indeed, 4 minutes of extreme anaerobic activity, pumping the maximum intensity with your muscles, is impossible. Look at weight lifters as they hold extreme weights up for barely a few seconds.

As for the dudes who can hold a pencil up for long periods of time, I suspect that this was aerobic ... not that there's anything wrong with such an accomplishment. Afterall, a long distance runner is every bit well trained as a sprinter.

I suggest 30 seconds of the most intense contraction, followed by a short rest. Personally, I believe that the duration of rest can be reduced over a period of time.

Comments?

[Mr.Hollywood]

I for one think that we should all be very greatful that we have a former Reinhardt student with such a rich medical backround posting on this forum.

We should do everything we can to make Walter feel welcome.


I found that last post to be not only helpful, but something that I feel I should probably print up and leave on my music stand.

THANKS WALTER!!!

Chris

[BeboppinFool]

Yeah, I'll second that. Thanks, Walter!!!

Rich
_________________
Puttin’ On The Ritz

[Mr.Hollywood]

Walter I have a question for you.....

I'm certain that Doc's endurance routines where you would keep the horn on your chops playing at a soft volume for periods of more than a half hour would be considered "long haul" strength training.

But would his compression routines be considered something like sprinting??? On these drills you are playing at the very top of your range with a soft almost "no sound approach". The mouthpiece doesn't stay on your chops for too long (maybe 10 or 15 seconds). the idea is to increase your resonse in the exstreme high range while doing it on one embouchure.

This was how Doc built a range in the advanced players. First response, then slowly working on opening up the "squeakers" until they where "real" notes.

What do you think????

Chris

[walter]

Hey Chris- I'll do my best to answer questions from what I know. Even though I've worked with a fair number of athletes and dancers, working on real-world problems and training, the closest that anyone has come to doing this in the brass world is probably Doc's work over the years. The information that exercise physiologists have today was probably unavailable to Doc; but the fact is that Doc's scientific approach to playing is backed-up by decades of success in applying what he learned to improving players.

I feel that anything that I can contribute is merely commentary on why Doc's methods may have been so effective. The place to go in search of answers to brass playing questions is to Doc's written material first, then to the experiences of his students. Although I learned much from Doc, I am not the best person to ask about his methods. As in any such searching, there is bound to be some confusion and perhaps even some contradictory data. I'll try to simply relate my experiences and how some material from other fields (my academic training in physiology and learning theory are probably most relevant in my understanding of Doc's work) helps in appreciating Doc's work.

Thus what I write will be scholarly rather than academic. The difference is that scholasticism has a primary focus around which all discussion is centered (a realm of accepted facts) and academics have to do with a more eclectic approach to understanding something. Doc's work established enough for us to focus on, especially in this part of the Forum.

Chris said: "I'm certain that Doc's endurance routines where you would keep the horn on your chops playing at a soft volume for periods of more than a half hour would be considered "long haul" strength training."

I agree. I can only guess about what Doc may have been trying to work on at the time he used endurance routines with any particular player. I know that he told me that he viewed learning to play has several major areas for the player to develop; and that a player could only work on a few areas at a time (months or years?)

One thing that I deliberately didn't mention in my last post on this thread is muscle anatomy. When we think of a muscle (say the biceps that we flex on the upper arm to show how strong we are), we often think of a large structure that functions as one unit. That's partly true. But a "muscle" is made up of smaller and smaller units, and when we contract a muscle, we are usually not contracting each and every muscle fiber within the larger muscle. When you lift up a feather with your hand/arm, you're only calling on a small percentage of muscle cells to contract. Some cells may contract briefly, then relax, letting other cells take over the load. Lift something heavier, and more muscle cells may be recruited ... perhaps for different periods of time.

Chris goes on: "But would his compression routines be considered something like sprinting??? On these drills you are playing at the very top of your range with a soft almost "no sound approach". The mouthpiece doesn't stay on your chops for too long (maybe 10 or 15 seconds). The idea is to increase your response in the extreme high range while doing it on one embouchure."

Again, I agree; but I'd like to put some light on the phrase "stay on your chops". In my last comments, I mentioned that contracting a "muscle" might only involve a small percentage of muscle cells actually contracting at a particular time. The more we demand from our chops in a short period of time (i.e. higher, louder), then the more muscle fibers/cells may be recruited. The longer we play (actual tone production), then the more likely we are to go from anaerobic muscle contraction (energy production) into aerobic muscle contraction (energy production).

Let me make the issue slightly more complex: When we do something using our muscles, we focus on using some specific muscles; but our actions require the support of many more muscles. You know instinctively that if you go to lift up something heavy, you must brace or support yourself firmly first. If you don't, then you may slip or be off balance. Actually, much of our body is involved in bracing itself as we focus on doing everyday tasks. Your little toe may brace itself as you go to turn the page of a book. Our muscles are constantly in a state of partial/minimal contraction called "tonus". They also go through slight increases and decreases in contraction as they provide support for the actions of different parts of the body.

Getting back to the phrase "stay on your chops": remember that to a Reinhardt student, the mouthpiece is placed on chops "of buzzing firmness". There is probably more ongoing muscle contraction in the chops of a Reinhardt student than of an average player. I suspect that the ongoing contraction is of supporting muscles, and that as we change pitch &/or volume we are bringing either more muscle fibers or different muscles into play. I've heard of players who keep the mouthpiece on their chops during practice in order to facilitate endurance ... but are they relaxing or reducing muscle contraction. I wonder what I may be unconsciously doing during a performance during the few beats that I'm resting between loud/high tones.

Chris finally says: "This was how Doc built a range in the advanced players. First response, then slowly working on opening up the "squeakers" until they where "real" notes."

I know that when I've gotten back into playing after taking time off, or when I've tried to either gain or recover range that I haven't worked on, that the response of various tones is weaker or "foggier" than that of other tones. Sometimes it feels like the horn responds better at some pitches than at others. It sometimes feels like those pitches are asleep, and that the sensation of using our muscles in finite ways (sometimes unfamiliar ways, when we're adding range) was Doc's objective.

The Spiderweb seems to be the long-term cure for me; but during a practice session when this happens, Doc recommended "hu" attacks on those foggy tones that I had trouble slotting.

One last thing about muscle anatomy: The muscles of the face are unique in many ways when compared to other muscles in the body. Their general category is that of skeletal muscle, as opposed to smooth muscle (which surrounds organs) or cardiac muscle (of the heart). Skeletal muscle usually connects one bone to another, causing movement thru a joint. Many of the embouchure muscles in the face lack attachment to bone. The facial muscles are considered to be muscles of expression (including music?). The embouchure muscles are arranged for a variety of movements that is more variable than anywhere else in the body, thus capable of unique expression.

[Mr.Hollywood]

Walter,

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions.

As far as Doc's endurance drills go, he was striving to get us into what he called "our second wind" . He said that this was when pure reflexes take over.

What in your opinion do you think is a good way to approach trumpet playing on a daily basis? In other words do you think it's a good idea to practice for 2 hours every day? What about days off.

I notice that when I take one day off and come back on the next day that my chops feel terrible. BUT.....If I take two days off and come back I feel like superman. Why is that??

I've got a great one for you..... Why does a new routine work for a few weeks or a couple of months and then stops? There must be some sort of medical answer. If I do a lot of buzzing for a week or to, its as if it was the answer to life.....then after a few weeks its seems to loose its effectiveness.

I apologize for all these questions. These are things I have wondered about for years. Yes I have always know that if I take two days off it will cure just about anything......But from a muscular standpoint WHY is that so?

Thank again for your time.

Chris

[Still Trying]

What is the "Jaw Retention Drill", and what does it do for you?
_________________
S. T.

What do we have that we did not receive, and if we received it, why do we glory, as if we received it not?

[airdyn]

Dear Still Trying,
i think i'm starting to sound like a broken record. GET THE ENCYCLOPEDIA!
Dave S.